Across the global pension industry, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved rapidly from experimentation to practical application in just a few short years. However, here in Ireland pension-specific AI adoption remains at an early stage.

While governance and regulatory considerations rightly demand caution, international experience suggests that the greatest opportunity now lies in identifying where AI can deliver tangible benefits for members, trustees, administrators and regulators.

Ireland has the advantage of learning from more mature markets, but the next important step is moving from discussion towards disciplined implementation.

Why AI is relevant to pensions

AI is particularly relevant to pensions because of the volume and complexity of pension data.

Pension funds, administrators, trustees and regulators are required to manage large volumes of data, including member records, contribution histories, investment portfolios, benefit rules, actuarial assumptions, service-provider arrangements and regulatory filings.

Much of this data remains fragmented across multiple systems, is manually processed and lacks a consistent structure.

As pension supervision becomes increasingly data-driven and risk-based, AI offers opportunities to improve oversight, identify risks earlier and support more proactive supervision.

Internationally, AI is already being used across pension systems in a range of areas, including investment management, risk management, compliance, operations, member engagement, administration, fraud detection, cybersecurity and governance support.

In investment management, AI can support portfolio optimisation, alternative data analysis, market-risk forecasting, liquidity monitoring and scenario modelling.

In administration, it can automate document processing, claims handling, contribution validation, transfer monitoring and perform data quality checks.

In member engagement, AI-powered tools can support query resolution, personalised communication and retirement-planning guidance.

For regulators, the highest-value use cases are likely to be more supervisory in nature.

These include identifying anomalous filings, detecting potential scams, analysing complaint patterns, monitoring scheme-level risk indicators, reviewing trustee governance materials and mapping third-party service provider dependencies.

There is also evidence that pension stakeholders increasingly expect AI to play a larger role in the future. A survey conducted by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association in Britain found that by 2035, pension investors expect AI to play a significant role in:

• Enhancing member engagement and communication (79%);

• Detecting and preventing fraud (75%);

• Improving data security (72%);

• Delivering personalised retirement planning (63%); and

• Supporting customised investment strategies (59%).

Ireland is still at an early stage

As of July 2026, Ireland is at a nascent stage of pension-specific AI adoption compared to more advanced markets such as Australia, the UK, Norway and the Netherlands. Currently, AI adoption in the Irish pensions space is at the discussion stage in areas such as administration, trustee governance and innovation.

Pension organisations are preparing for increased AI adoption within evolving regulatory frameworks, including the European Union’s AI Act, the Digital Operational Resilience Act, the Central Bank of Ireland’s innovation initiatives and the Pensions Authority’s operational resilience guidance.

Trustee governance considerations are also becoming increasingly prominent, as evidenced by AI-focused educational initiatives, such as the Irish Association of Pension Funds’ trustee governance webinars.

While widespread adoption remains limited, some Irish pension providers are already leveraging AI. Irish Life has implemented intelligent automation to process pension contribution submissions, for example.

The solution addresses significant operational challenges associated with manually processing approximately 3,000 monthly contribution documents submitted in varying formats and often containing incomplete or inaccurate information.

However, the next stage for Ireland should be to move beyond isolated automation projects towards a coordinated strategy that leverages AI to enhance pension supervision, strengthen member protection and improve overall system resilience.

What Ireland can learn from international best practice

International examples show that AI adoption in pensions is already moving from concept to practical implementation.

In Australia, AustralianSuper, which manages around A$400 billion in assets, is developing AI-powered digital advice tools in partnership with Ignition Advice to provide personalised retirement guidance to its members.

It is also using AI to automate internal business processes and has deployed Microsoft’s Security Copilot to strengthen cyber defence capabilities.

UniSuper, another pension fund in Australia managing around A$170 billion, has built an AI-enabled digital advice platform that can deliver advice at a volume equivalent to the output of multiple financial advisers.

In Norway, Norges Bank Investment Management, which has approximately US$2 trillion in assets under management, uses AI tools to screen potential IPOs for sustainability and governance risks, thus acting as a proactive risk radar, and embedding ESG diligence into the investment process.

In the UK, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) uses machine learning tools through the Pension Scams Action Group to identify fraudulent pension scam websites. The tool has reviewed over 800 websites, resulting in the takedown of 29 high-risk sites, and 94 referrals to partner agencies.

TPR uses Microsoft Copilot Chat internally and is undertaking targeted AI initiatives using Azure AI Foundry capabilities.

There are many more examples from right around the globe. Of course, not every international initiative should be replicated.

Rather, international experience suggests that the most successful approaches start with governance and build capability progressively. These examples enable us to form a view on which initiatives are most likely to be successful, however.

“TRUSTEE GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS ARE ALSO BECOMING INCREASINGLY PROMINENT, AS EVIDENCED BY AI-FOCUSED EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES, SUCH AS THE IRISH ASSOCIATION OF PENSION FUNDS’ TRUSTEE GOVERNANCE WEBINARS”

The international examples discussed in this article also suggest that AI adoption tends to evolve gradually, moving from foundational governance and operational use cases towards more advanced applications over time.

In the context of Irish pensions, an illustrative roadmap could begin with foundational activities focused on governance, risk and accountability frameworks, improving data quality and standardisation, process automation and capability building.

A second phase might involve scaling operational applications of AI, including fraud and scam detection, complaint analysis, regulatory filing validation, supervisory analytics and cybersecurity and operational resilience monitoring.

As AI capabilities mature, a third phase might focus on more strategic applications, such as personalised retirement guidance, predictive scheme risk monitoring, AI-enabled investment analytics and stress testing – and more integrated deployment across administration and supervision.

International experience suggests opportunity While Ireland’s pension sector is currently at an early stage of AI adoption, international experience demonstrates significant opportunities to improve operational efficiency, member protection, risk management and regulatory effectiveness.

As AI adoption evolves, governance, skills and operating models are likely to become increasingly important considerations for pension organisations. Ireland has the opportunity to learn from more mature markets and adopt a measured, phased approach.

The next step is ensuring that discussion increasingly gives way to practical implementation.

Rav Vithaldas, FCA, is Partner and Pensions Assurance Leader with EY Ireland